Is it just me?
Do you break out in song when you hear the word ‘tomorrow’? I do.
“Tomorrow. Tomorrow. I love you tomorrow. You’re only a day away.”
It’s from the musical “Annie” and I have never seen an entire production. You would think since I love music and I love to sing, that I would love musicals. I don’t. I mean, I don’t hate them like my friend Denise, but I will pick something else before a musical.
Today, I want to talk about tomorrow. We are not promised it. We have right here; right now, that’s all we have. This very moment. And now that moment is gone, and you are in the next moment.
It’s amazing to me, when I really allow my brain to process it, how we literally only have, or live in, one second of life; exactly one second at a time. Then, that second is gone, and we are onto the next and so on and so forth until we take our last breath.
We are not promised tomorrow. No matter how happy the song may sound, tomorrow is a lifetime away for some.
There is some verbiage in James that I think of often when I am making plans for ‘tomorrow’.
Jesus’ younger brother wrote, “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring…” James 4:13 ESV
Now, let me say first of all, I don’t believe our Heavenly Father wants us to go around with zero plans for our life; but King Solomon states it plainly: “What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” James 4:14 ESV
It’s a legitimate question. Once you have lived 4 or 5 decades, you realized how fast; how incredible fleeting is our lives. Yes, we need a plan; we need a financial plan. The Lord wants us to earn money and pay our bills and be productive members of society. We need to be active and motivated.
King Solomon warned against laziness. “Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest. How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.” Proverbs 6:6-11 ESV
So, what is the best course of action? It’s right there in verse 15:
“Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
Commit your plans to Him. Commit your day to Him.
Proverbs 16:3 reminds us to “Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.” ESV
If we start our day in prayer; if we invite Jesus to walk with us; if we invite the Holy Spirit to dwell in us and if we show (and live) trust, we will make it to the other side.
Proverbs 3:5-6 reminds us to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”
I don’t know about you, but straight paths are a lot easier to walk, than bumpy, crooked paths.
We are His workmanship, created in Their likeness. Created in Christ Jesus for good works, the work of spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ, which God prepared before the world was even created. Those are the kind of plans we should be making.
“Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.” Ephesians 2:7-10 The Message
God’s purpose for our lives is to point others to Jesus. We do not have to be a preacher or a pastor or a missionary in a faraway land, we can point others to Jesus in our day-to-day lives.
By Jeanette Stark – Tuesday, June 20, 2023
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